Wadsworth Banner to close after 142 years

The Sun News is closing three of its 25 newspapers on Jan. 25, including the Wadsworth Sun Banner that has been serving Wadsworth for 142 years

The Banner, the Sun Scoop Journal (in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland) and The West Summit Sun (serving west central Summit County) are ``underperforming,'' said Sun News president and CEO John Urbancich.

``We're retrenching and shifting resources away from unprofitable areas to revenue-generating areas,'' Urbancich said, citing dwindling circulation and declining ad revenue in those communities.

`Sun News is ``likely'' to have The Plain Dealer in Cleveland print all of its editions starting in April, removing that work from American Color Graphics in Medina. Urbancich said the move will save money. (Sun News is a division of Advance Publications Inc., which also owns The Plain Dealer.)

The location of the Medina bureau will close when the lease ends in July. No decision has been made whether to move that staff to another office or find another place in or near Medina.

``I don't want anyone to think we're pulling out of Medina County, because we're not,'' Urbancich said, noting that two other local papers, the Brunswick Sun Times and The Medina Sun, will still publish.

Click on the headline to read the full story by Paula Schleis on the business front (page D1) of Saturday’s Beacon Journal. Schleis quotes BJ owner David Black as stating it would have no effect on the BJ.